REPORT OF THE GREEK 
UNIVERSITY COMMISSION 



UPON 



THE ATROCITIES AND DEVASTATIONS 

COMMITTED BY THE BULGARIANS IN 

EASTERN MACEDONIA 



PUBLISHED FOR THE 
AMERICAN HELLENIC SOCIETY 

105 WEST 40TH STREET (Tildbn Bdildiko), NEW YORK, N. Y. 
BY 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH 

85 WEST 82irD STREET. NEW YORK 

1919 



THE AMERICAN-HELLENIC SOCIETY 
GENERAL COUNCIL 

President 
Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph.D., LL.D. 

yice-Presidents 
Charles W. Eliot, Ph.D., LL.D. 
Jacob G, Schurman, D.Sc, LL.D. 



Chairman Executive Committee 
Carroll N. Brown, Ph.D. 

General Secretary 

Constantine Voicly, J.D. 

(National University of Greece) 



Director 
Theodore P. Ion, J.D., D.CL. 

Treasurer 
L, J. Calvocoressi 



Edward D. Perry, Ph.D., LL.D. 
♦James R. Wheeler, Ph.D., LL.p. 
Edward Robinson, LL.D., D.Litt. 
Andrew F. West, Ph.D., LL.D. 
Williana Kelly Prentice, Ph.D. 
George M. Whicher, D.Litt. 
Frederic R. Coudert, Ph.D. 
Petros Tatanis 
Very Rev. D. Callimachos, D.D. 

(National University of Greece) 
Thomas Dwight Goodell, Ph.D. 
William Nickerson Bates, Ph.D. 
Kendall K. Smith, Ph.D. 
William F. Harris 

(Chairman of Mass. Local Council) 
Herbert W. Smyth, Ph.D. 
George H. Chase, Ph.D. 
William S. Ferguson, Ph.D. 
Charles B. Gulick, Ph.D. 
L. D. Caskey, Ph.D. 
Mrs. C. E. Whitmore 



Rev. F. G. Peabody, D.D. 

Rev. W. H. Van Allen, D.D. 

Charles Peabody, Ph.D. 

C. N. Jackson, Ph.D. 

A. E. Phoutrides, Ph.D. 

Raphael Demos, Ph.D. 

C. R. Post, Ph.D. 

Joseph R. Taylor, A.M. 

Mrs. R. B. Perry 

P. J. Sachs 

Alex. Sedgwick 

Edward W. Forbes 

C. H. Fiske, Jr. 

William H. Dunbar 

Miran Sevasly 

Anthony Benachi 

George H. Moses 

(Chairman of Washington, 
D. C, Local Council) 
Stephen M. Newman, D.D. 
Mitchell Carroll, Ph.D. 
John Constas, M.D. 



• Died February 9, 1918. 



Executive Committee 



Carroll N. Brown 
Edward D. Perry 
George M. Whicher 
Theodore P. Ion 
Constantine Voicly 
L. J. Calvocoressi 
Frederic Cunliffe-Owen John Constas 
Petros Tatanis 



Edward Robinson 
Herbert W. Smyth 
Charles B. Gulick 
George H. Chase 
George H. Moses 
Stephen M. Newman 



CENTRAL OFFICE. 105 West 40ih Street, 
Tflden Buading, New York City, N. Y. 



REPORT OF THE GREEK 
UNIVERSITY COMMISSION 

UPON 

THE ATROCITIES AND DEVASTATIONS 

COMMITTED BY THE BULGARIANS IN 

EASTERN MACEDONIA 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 
BY 

CARROLL N. BROWN, PH.D. 

The College of the City of New York 



PUBLISHED FOR THE 
AMERICAN HELLENIC SOCIETY 

105 WEST 40th street (Tilden Building), NEW YORK, N. Y. 
BY 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH 

35 WEST 32nd STREET. NEW YORK 

1919 



Gift 






REPORT OF THE GREEK UNIVERSITY 
COMMISSION UPON THE ATROCITIES 
AND DEVASTATIONS COMMITTED 
BY THE BULGARIANS IN EAST- 
ERN MACEDONIA 

Mr. President: 

The Senate of the University having charged us 
with the duty of travehng over Eastern Macedonia and 
verifying the crimes committed by the Bulgarians in this 
province, which they had invaded, we set out for Sa- 
lonika on the 12/25 of the last month. We visited the 
different important centers of Eastern Macedonia, Ca- 
valla, Doxato, Drama and Seres; we saw with our own 
eyes the devastation there committed, and by the testi- 
mony of competent witnesses, we verified the vexations 
of every sort, the cases of death from starvation and 
maltreatment, the murders and other criminal acts that 
the Bulgarians have perpetrated against the inhabitants 
left in these regions, as well as against the Greeks that 
were deported into Bulgaria. 

We have gathered our testimony partly from the lips 
of the victims themselves, of whom we have, in every 
case, chosen the representatives that were most worthy 
of credence among the Greek, Turk, or other popula- 
tions, and partly from the official authorities and docu- 
ments. 

During our entire investigation we had the oppor- 
tunity to travel and cooperate with certain individuals 
who had gone there with the same purpose — particu- 
larly with Messrs. H. Pernot, Professor at the Sorbonne; 
H. E. Russell, Vice-Consul of the United States at 
Salonika; Lieut. H. M. Gray, Military Attache of the 
American Embassy at Athens; C. S. Butler, special cor- 

1 



2 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

respondent of the Daily Mail, and J. Dormer, corre- 
spondent of the Continental Daily Mail. In support of 
the charges made in this report, we appeal to the testi- 
mony of these gentlemen, who are not only worthy of 
faith, but are also entirely free from all prejudice of a 
national or political nature. 

In our haste to bring before the eyes of the public the 
result of our investigations, we content ourselves with 
listing the depositions and the official documents which 
we would have liked to add to this report. These docu- 
ments are as follows, and the numbers in parenthesis, 
throughout the text, refer to them. 



1. Deposition of Eug. Jordanou, Mayor of Cavalla. 

2. Deposition of Stavro K. Stavrou, Municipal Coun- 

cilor of Cavalla, who continued to hold office for 
a time, in spite of the Bulgarian occupation. 

3. Deposition of Mrs. Helen Oikiadou, President of 

the Orphan Asylum for Greeks, Turks and Jews 
in Cavalla, which was founded in April, 1917, to 
shelter and assist the orphans of Cavalla who had 
been rendered homeless. 

4. Deposition of INIehmet Ali Bey, JNIunicipal Coun- 

cilor of Cavalla, who was left in office throughout 
the duration of the Bulgarian occupation. 

5. Deposition of Panayoti Sinoka, a hostage recently 

released. 

6. Deposition of G. Vardaka, foreman in a tobacco 

factory of Cavalla, a hostage, only lately repa- 
triated. 

7. Deposition of G. Gounaris, an employee of the 

National Bank of Greece, and cousin of the 
former Prime Minister, who was unable to leave 
Cavalla after the invasion of the Bulgarians. 

8. Deposition of J. Hadjiyoannou, a physician of 

Cavalla, who remained in the city. 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 3 

9. Deposition of E. Djimourtos, City Physician of 
Cavalla, who remained in the city. 

10. Depositions of M. Oeconomos, P. Christodoulos and 

Nicolas Papanastasiou, priests, who were taken 
as hostages and have recently been repatriated. 

11. Deposition of a JNIr. Triandaphyllides, physician in 

Cavalla, who stayed in the cit}^ 

12. Deposition of J. Stylianides, State Engineer at 

Cavalla, deported as a hostage. 

13. Deposition of Mrs. Euphrosyne Bassiou, 70 years 

old, who remained at Cavalla. 

14. Deposition of Miss A. N., 18 years of age, who 

remained at Cavalla. 

15. Deposition of Prodromos Vasiliou, aged 23 years, a 

repatriated hostage. 

16. Report of the three physicians, who stayed in Ca- 

valla, Doctors Djimourtos, Hadjiyoannou and 
Triandaphyllides, on the deaths resulting from 
starvation and sickness during the Bulgarian oc- 
cupation.* 

17. Deposition of Athanasius Triandaphyllides, physi- 

cian of the village of Prosotsani, who remained in 
that place. 

18. Deposition of Athanasius Papaloudis, City Physi- 

cian of Drama, who stayed in the city. 

19. Deposition of N. Dassouka, physician at Drama, 

who stayed in the city. 

20. Deposition of Lambros G. Karamertzanis, druggist 

at Drama who, remaining in the cit}^, took notes 
throughout the Bulgarian occupation. 

21. List of some girls' names carried off by the Bul- 

garians, drawn up by the preceding. 

22. List of a certain number of inhabitants killed in the 

school-building at Drama, according to a note of 
the same. 

* All these depositions were duly registered at Cavalla, October 14/27, 
15/28 and 16/29, 1918. 



4 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

23. Deposition of Kiazim Haki, Mufti of Drama. 

24. List given by Ibrahim Haki, secretary of the Mus- 

suhnan community of Drama and containing the 
names of Mussulmans who died of starvation at 
Drama, arranged according to the quarters of the 
city. 

25. Deposition of Dem. Athanasiades, one of the most 

important merchants of Drama, who stayed in 
the city. 

26. Deposition of Taki Stavropoulos, mihtary physician, 

who was among the first to enter Seres after the 
liberation of Eastern Macedonia. 

27. Deposition of Stavrou, ditch-digger at Drama. 

28. Deposition of Pericles Tsintota, cutler, who stayed 

in the city. 

29. Deposition of P. Moulovasilis, physician at Ro- 

dolivo, in Panghaion, who stayed in that place. 

30. Deposition of K. Kimbaris, one of the chief mer- 

chants of Drama, deported as a hostage. 

31. Deposition of Theophilus Othonaios. 

32. Deposition of D. Vantsi, Mayor of Drama. 

33. Deposition of John Theodore Giouventzikis, grocer 

at Drama, a repatriated hostage. 

34. Deposition of Demetrius Christodoulos Demetriades, 

baker at Drama, a repatriated hostage. 

35. Deposition of Spyros Demetriou, of Cavalla, who 

emigrated and then returned to the town. 

36. Deposition of C. Panas, a teacher at Cavalla, a 

repatriated hostage. 

37. Deposition of Pan. Vasilaros, interpreter at the 

prefecture of Drama, formerly Inspector-General 
of Secondary Instruction in the prefecture of the 
Archipelago, a repatriated hostage. 

38. Deposition of Eust. Vlysmas, postmaster at Pravi, 

a repatriated hostage. 

39. Deposition of Athan. N. Iltsos, grocer, a repatriated 

hostage. 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 5 

40. Deposition of Papademetrius Oekonomou, priest of 

the Metropole of Drama, a repatriated hostage 
who gives an account of all the misfortunes 
endured by the priests and monks deported to 
Bulgaria. 

41. Two photographs of deported men, business men, 

scientists, students, officials, etc., working on rail- 
road construction. 

42. Deposition of Akil Bey, Mayor of Seres, who kept 

his position for a time, during the Bulgarian 
occupation. 

43. Deposition of John Doumba, City Physician of 

Seres. 

44. Deposition of Mrs. Cleopatra Simou, who remained 

in Seres. 

45. Deposition of Mrs. Amelia Mantzana, who remained 

in Seres. 

46. Deposition of Helen Prokopiou, Fanny Christou 

and of Dr. Doumba of Seres, as to the murder 
of Stergios Chr. Sarafi. 

47. Deposition of Asterios Yannouras, ex-Treasurer in 

Chief of the Bank of Athens at Seres. 

48. Action of the Municipal Council of Seres, dated 

April 24. 

49. Official list of the deaths recorded at Seres during 

the months of January, February and March, 
1917. 

50. Note on the price of food at Seres during the Bul- 

garian occupation. 

51. Deposition of Pericles Hadjitolios, employed in a 

private house. 

52. Deposition of Mrs. Marika Panayotouda, who re- 

mained at Seres. 

53. Deposition of Sp. Dassios, who has recently been 

appointed prefect of Seres.* 

* These depositions were registered at Drama, October 17/30 and 18/31, 
and at Seres, October 19/November 1 and October 20/November 2. 



6 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

We rely also on the testimony of 2nd Lieut. X , 

an English aviator (54) ; of Count Orlowski, a lieu- 
tenant in the French army {55) ; of Dr. Constantino- 
vitch, a Serbian physician; of a Mr. Yovanovitch, a 
Serbian medical student (5Q), who were all prisoners 
captured by the Bulgarians and set free after the armi- 
stice ; we met them at the house of the Governor-General 
of Salonika, ]Mr. G. Adossides, on October 24/November 
4, and with their consent have taken note of the testi- 
mony that they there gave publicly. 

I. The Invasion and the Bulgaiian Administration 

As is well known, the Bulgarians entered into Eastern 
Macedonia on August 5/18, 1916, with the consent of 
the then Greek government; they penetrated the country 
as though it were a neutral and friendly (?) land; being 
admitted as guests, so to speak, because of the abnormal 
nature of the international military situation in Mace- 
donia, they promised to maintain the Hellenic adminis- 
tration intact and guaranteed the securitj^ and tran- 
quillity of the inhabitants. 

Nevertheless, only a few days after their entry into 
Greek territory, they gave themselves up to excesses and 
devastations of every sort (2, 20, 38, 47). 

Apparently they did, for some time, and in certain 
localities, maintain the Greek authorities; but in fact 
they set to work, whether officially or not, to bring about 
government by Bulgarian military authorities. The 
Commandants of the various places were virtually mili- 
tarj?- governors, and acted always arbitrarily and tyran- 
nically. The administration of Eastern Macedonia was 
entrusted to well-known Comitadjis, upon whom the 
Bulgarian government had conferred military rank, such 
as Taska at Seres, Panitsa at Drama, Zissa Ratseff at 
Cavalla, or to officers that had been corrupted, such 
as Georgieff and Angeloff at Cavalla, and Captains 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 7 

Georgieff and Philipoff at Seres. Their administration 
was one of real brigands and criminals, as the following 
exposition will prove. 

71. Destruction of the Archives and of the Public 

Offices 

The destruction of Greek archives and of public 
offices, and their devastation, which began on the very 
first day, are proven by the proces-verbal drawn up by 
the Greek officials of Seres on the 14/27 of November 
1916. This document, which has been preserved, is 
certified by General Taneff himself. Military Inspector 
of Eastern Macedonia, and by the German Captain 
von Putkammer. These acts are likewise confirmed by 
the deposition of Mr. Vlysmas, postmaster at Pravi (3i8), 
and by other depositions. 

III. Pillaging of Private Houses 

From the first day of their invasion, the Bulgarians 
began to pillage and devastate. This is established by 
the testimony of some individuals, of advanced age, for 
the most part, whom we found in Eastern Macedonia and 
who were not later deported (1, 2, 3, 7, 13, 17, 20, 25, 
29, 31, 32). Besides, we became convinced of the facts 
by ocular evidence, when we visited a large number of 
the better houses of Cavalla and Seres, which we found 
deprived of their last piece of furniture. The robbery of 
the furniture was committed, too, on so large a scale, 
that the two years of occupation did not suffice for the 
transportation to Bulgaria of the objects stolen. Thus 
at Drama they left three large stores full of ward- 
robes, tables, chairs, mirrors, lamps, sewing-machines 
and cradles, furniture which came almost entirely from 
Cavalla, and which, in spite of the well-organized system 
of transportation of objects captured, which was in use 
in the Bulgarian army, the invader had not had time to 



8 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

transport to Bulgaria; he was prevented from doing it 
by the arrival in an aeroplane of two French officers who 
speedily put an end to any further transportation of this 
furniture from Drama. They likewise found at Cavalla, 
in the stores of the American Gery Company, as well as 
in the ground floor of the house of C. Loghi, a whole col- 
lection of furniture which they had not had time to trans- 
port to Bulgaria. 

The devastations committed simultaneously and sys- 
tematically by the Bulgarian troops, from the very first 
days of the invasion, establish furthermore the accuracy 
of the testimony of Dr. Djimourtos (9) of Cavalla; the 
latter affirms the existence of a military order which left 
the Bulgarian army completely free to sack and seize 
everything that they wanted. But this task of carrying 
away was not confined to the first days of the occupation ; 
under divers pretexts it was continued to the very last 
moment of this barbarous invasion of the Bulgars. Thus, 
under pretense of requisitioning blankets for the army, 
they often invaded the houses and carried away, at the 
same time as the blankets, carpets and in fact everything 
that they found to their liking. These robberies were 
committed either officially in the manner that we have 
just indicated, or by the soldiers as individuals. 

In their mania for sacking and destroying everything 
Greek, the Bulgars did not spare even the cemeteries. 
One of the members of our Commission, Mr. D. Hon- 
dros, with difficulty succeeded in recognizing, in the 
cemetery of Seres, the tomb of his father, from which they 
had removed the cross and the enclosing fence ; it was the 
same with the greater part of the graves in the cemetery. 
The Greek gravestones were transported to Bulgaria, 
where they were used as flagging in the courtj^ards (17). 

More especially, after having deported the middle- 
aged people they transferred to other houses the women 
and children who remained; then not only did they take 
away everything from the houses, but they destroyed the 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 9 

very buildings themselves, in order to take everything 
that they could use either as fuel or as merchandise, such 
as the doors, the windows, the beams, the tiles, etc. (2, 
25 ) . Besides this, they drove away the owners on various 
pretexts and pillaged the houses (64). 

Thus, at Drama, they called the people together one 
day to receive the Kaiser (testimony of JNIrs. Georgiades 
of Drama ) . A house was luxuriously furnished for his 
reception but neither did the Kaiser appear at Drama, 
where he had only passed through the railroad station, 
nor did the proprietors ever recover their furniture. 
High dignitaries and officers set fire to the finest houses 
in order to conceal the pillage to which they had been sub- 
jected. Thus, the jNIilitary Governor of Cavalla, Angel- 
ofi^, pillaged the house of the wealthy doctor George Th. 
Loghi (7, 13), a veritable palace, and then burned it. 
Often quarrels and disputes arose among the officers over 
the division of the booty (7). 

It goes without saying that neither money nor receipt 
was given for what was stolen. As for the animals 
necessary to till the soil and meet the other needs of the 
population, they were stolen from the citizens and Greek 
peasants for the use of the army without their receiving 
any recompense for them. 

These facts and others that we adduce below justify, 
we think, the terms of the telegram which we recently 
sent from Salonika, in which we stated that the conduct 
of the Bulgars had been that of a regularly organized 
band of brigands. 

IV. Murders and Outrages 

It is even necessary to call them ferocious brigands for 
many of them have neglected no opportunity to satiate 
their hatred of Hellenism. Beatings and maltreatment 
were in fact the order of the day, and they were often so 
cruelly administered as to cause death. Among the num- 
ber of those who succumbed, we may mention Kotsos 



10 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

Hadjanestis of Drama, Panag. Matsikas of Ortakioi, N. 
Michel, baker at Drama and the actor, V. Vasiliades of 
Athens. 

The blows that this latter received caused such wounds 
that his clothes, according to the druggist Karamertzanis, 
who gave him first aid, were embedded in them (20). 
The invader, on the morrow of his arrival, carried away 
eighteen young men who were butchered in a most cruel 
manner (17). 

We have verified the names of the young men killed in 
the Greek school at Drama: Christos Zambas, Abraham 
Chela, Lambros Siapekas, I. Karayannis, Vasili Nikou, 
Sakis, I. Karageorgis, Nic. Stergios, Alex. Kostis of 
Prosotsani, K. Koupassos of Vollako, G. Kombokis of 
Egri-Dere. 

All these unfortunates were killed by bayonet thrusts 
in the school; their corpses were thrown into a pit, well 
known to the people, situated half a mile from the town. 
On the door of the school they had written their names, 
the date of their entry and of their departure, thus form- 
ing an inscribed martyrology of victims of Bulgarian 
brutality. Later, because of the odors arising, disin- 
fectants, purchased from the druggist Karamertzanis for 
this purpose, were thrown into the pit (20). The 
plaints and lamentations of our tortured brethren in their 
place of martyrdom had been so frightful, so terrible, 
that for a long time afterwards the Greeks avoided pass- 
ing by the school-building. 

At Cavalla they shot Kopteros and Sachinis, both 
Greeks (testimony of Mehmet Bey, Municipal Coun- 
cilor of Cavalla). In the village of Prosotsani, near 
Drama, they seized 268 hostages, of whom they kept 
the richest, John Karayannis (17), from whom, on 
various occasions, they extorted the sum of 200,000 
francs. He was later imprisoned and put to death in 
the famous prison — the school of Drama. These facts 
are established by numerous testimonies and among 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 11 

others by the written testimony of a victim herself, which 
was found in her prison. 

This prison was directed by the famous Comitadji 
Panitsas, who was appointed Director of Internal Safety. 
Whoever entered there might be sure of never coming 
out alive. The number of victims who died there, after 
having been tortured, passes fifty. They were buried 
secretly, during the night (27). Further, in execution 
of verdicts pronounced by the Council of War, eleven 
other Greeks were hanged at Drama, on the pretext of 
espionage, but in reality because they were regarded 
as ardent patriots. 

We have also received confirmation of the death of 
the Metropolitan of Pravi, who was assassinated not far 
from that place, not hanged after condemnation by the 
Council of War at Drama, as the Bulgarian govern- 
ment falsely maintains. 

We must also note the murder of Stergios Chr. 
Sarafis. According to the deposition of a relative of 
his, Helen Prokopiou, who lives at Seres, this man was 
found dead, his head in a sack and his body bearing stabs 
in the chest. His death, which occurred October 16/29, 
1916, and the seizure of his wealth, which amounted to 
200 or 250 pounds sterling, are confirmed by his sister 
Fanny Christou, and by the physician of Seres, J. Doum- 
ba (43), who performed the autopsy and counted the 
marks of more than eighteen bayonet thrusts. Further, 
according to the deposition of Mrs. Amelia Mantzana of 
Seres, in March, 1918, soldiers forced the door of the 
house of her uncle, K. Athan. Bouzoukas, 70 years of 
age (45), and while two of them held him, the others 
robbed him of his money and clothes. We note also 
that these barbarians even wished to stab with their 
bayonets a woman that was pregnant (5) ; they sus- 
pected her of concealing something under her dress. 
They released her only after they had torn off her clothes 
and had recognized their error. It is to be noticed 



12 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

finally that the Monastery of the Virgin Ikossiphinissa, 
not far from Panghaion, was ravaged completely (20, 
29). This monastery was wealthy and possessed many 
sacred relics of great value, among them a very ancient 
gospel, written in gold on parchment; today nothing is 
left but ruins. 

V. Robbery and Brigandage by Indirect Means 

Apart from these open acts of brigandage, they com- 
mitted others on a vast scale under various crudely 
ingenious pretexts. 

The guards of those deported exacted and received 
money for the granting of petty privileges, even when 
it was a question of the most elementary necessities (39, 
51). These sums were much larger for purchasing 
from the Bulgarian officers exemption or relief from 
fatigue duty. As Mr. Yannouras, a bank employee, 
reports, the inhabitants of Seres were divided into four 
categories, according to their wealth; the absolutely 
indigent were subjected to forced labor, while the others 
could get exempted by paying monthly a sum of 25, 
50 or 75 drachmas, according to the category in wliich 
they were placed. 

For the distribution of food in Seres, the inhabitants 
were likewise divided into three groups. To the third 
belonged the poor, who received food gratis; to the others 
belonged the people of means, arranged according to 
their wealth. But the Bulgarian administration had put 
into the first class, almost exclusively, only Greeks (53). 
Numerous cases of extortion of this nature are certified 
by various depositions of witnesses. 

At times under the pretext of philanthropic objects, 
they exacted contributions which never got out of the 
pockets of the officers appointed to collect them. Thus 
the famous Angeloff, Commandant in Cavalla, gathered, 
in the name of the JNIixed Orphan Asylum, established at 
Cavalla, sums of money that never reached the treasury 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 13 

of the asylum. They had made him Honorary President 
of this institution in the vain hope of arousing a benevo- 
lent feeling in him for the orphans. But he never helped 
them in any way. When the ladies, who administered 
the orphan asylum, complained to him of the lack of 
food, as a consequence of which many of their wards 
were dying, Angeloff, who knew Greek, did not hesitate 
to reply in this language " Let them starve! " (3). At 
other times they gave so-called " concerts," the purchase 
of tickets, at the price of a hundred drachmas, being 
made obligatory. Georgieff, Commandant in Seres, com- 
pelled the merchants to exchange lews for drachmas at 
par; he boasted of having thus gained £100 a day (47). 
They succeeded also in robbing the Greeks by starting 
false rumors. For instance, in May, 1918, the Military 
Governor of Seres let it be known that the city was to be 
exacuated, and that the inhabitants would have the right 
to carry away with them only thirty kilograms. The 
Commissariat, in its turn, proclaimed that what was left 
would be regarded as res nullius and would be confiscated. 
Profiting by these declarations, numerous Bulgarians, 
among them a deputy, bought from the Greeks a 
quantity of stuff at absolutely ridiculous prices (44). 

Thus the military authorities readiily put their heads 
together to exploit most shamelessly the fear that their 
arbitrary conduct inspired in the inhabitants. And 
this continued even after the catastrophe to their army, 
which the Allies inflicted last September. Thus, 2nd 
Lieutenant Georgieff, the last Commandant in Cavalla, 
as soon as he learned of the catastrophe and the armi- 
stice, of which the inhabitants were still ignorant, caused 
it to be proclaimed by a crier, carrying a drum, that 
every Turk or Jew, capable of working, would be obliged 
to register for employment in the Bulgarian army. This 
measure permitted Georgieff's band, in the last three 
days of their stay at Cavalla, to get hold of 800,000 
drachmas, which Turks and Jews made haste to give to 



14 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

the Commandant or his tools, in order to purchase ex- 
emption from this enforced labor with which they were 
threatened. 

But the most shameful means employed by the Bul- 
garian army in order to despoil the inhabitants of 
Eastern JNIacedonia and the hostages carried away into 
Bulgaria, was the exploitation of the " famine regime " 
which was systematically organized. 

Thus, at the very beginning of the occupation, the 
Bulgarian army requisitioned all the food supplies, both 
those left by the army and those belonging to individuals 
(20, 52) ; they then forbade all communication between 
the inhabitants of the city and the country-villages where 
some food might still be found ; they instituted committees 
of food-supply, which distributed provisions in return 
for money and in hardly sufficient amount, as the drug- 
gist G. Karamertzanis says, to keep a bird alive. Even 
the bread which they distributed was of a lamentably 
poor quality; adulterated with plaster or cement, it pro- 
voked stomach troubles ; at best it was mixed with barley, 
corn and rye. The bread-ration was 30 or 40 grams a 
day (2, 7, 20, 25, 30, 47). 

The expected results were soon obtained: the Bul- 
garian officers surreptitiously undertook to provision the 
inhabitants, and the soldiers openly re-sold to them at 
fabulous prices the food seized or stolen. In the three 
cities of Cavalla, Drama and Seres, according to in- 
formation which we have received from different sources, 
the price of provisions varied within the limits stated 
below : 

Corn 22-23 lews (francs) an oke (2% Ibe.) 

Flour 30 " 

Sugar 80-90 " 

Meat 35-40 " 

Coffee 300^00 " 

Butter 100 " 

Salt 20 

Beans 20 " 

Soap 80 " 

Tomatoes 16 " 

Coal 1-2 

Cheese 60-70 " 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 15 

During this time bread was selling in Bulgaria at one 
lew, or a little later at two lews, at most, per oke. Note, 
also, that paper money was not taken in payment; that 
it was necessary to pay in gold or in kind, the rich with 
their jewels or fine furniture, those less well off, with 
wood or clothing. There is, then, nothing surprising in 
the tragic descriptions of misfortune, misery and death 
occasioned by famine as described in the above deposi- 
tions. Lambros Karamertzanis, druggist at Drama, 
declares that " to support, in a very modest way, a family 
of 5 or 6 persons cost 3,000-4,000 lews a month, while 
in Bulgaria it cost only 150-200 lews." " There are," 
this witness adds, " rich people in Drama who have sold 
their furniture, their kitchen-furnishings and, in the end, 
their very houses, for fifty or a hundred okes of flour. 
As to the gypsies of the village, they have all sold their 
houses for 20 or 30 okes of corn, only to die, later, of 
starvation." We have beheld with our own eyes the 
ruin that fell upon the gypsy quarter. 

The exploitation of starvation was practiced on a vast 
scale and in a more shameful way upon the hostages. 
Often they took away their food, while the rich among 
them were compelled to pay exorbitant amounts even 
for water. Of this we shall speak again. 

VI. Violation of Women 

It is impossible to give any sure statistics as to the 
outrages on women that were committed by Bulgarian 
soldiers and in particular by Bulgarian officers. The 
natural modesty of Greek women who refuse to answer 
when questioned about such matters, and the austere 
morals of the country, where even unfortunates who have 
yielded to violence are looked down upon and despised, 
renders all control of data impossible. However, from 
various sources of evidence, such as the testimony of 
physicians and nurses who cared for the outraged girls 



16 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

(43, 14), the depositions of some girls and other persons 
(2, 7), the number of young girls that were met with that 
were evidently pregnant, the large number of infants 
abandoned in the churches (25), and, above all, the 
confidential information furnished by parents or friends 
of the victims, we are justified in concluding that the 
raping of women and girls was unfortunately all too 
common, being traceable to military rakes and de- 
bauchees like Angeloff, Georgieff, etc., or, to some other 
shameful means. The wretches put their victims, 
usually orphans (14), before the following dilemma: 
either dishonor, or death by starvation for them, their 
old mothers and their young sisters. We have learned 
that the number of those who chose death was consider- 
able, — and we are not surprised; we bow with a feeling 
of admiration before these heroines who chose starvation 
and death, and who were far more numerous than the 
victims who finally were forced to yield. 

In addition to all this the Bulgarians in Macedonia 
did not forget their compatriots at home; they carried 
away a large number of girls and sent them to Bulgaria 
(3, 20). According to information furnished to Count 
Orlowski, a 2nd Lieutenant who was a prisoner of war 
in Bulgaria, they were turned over to a life of prostitu- 
tion. Even the Bulgarian press protested (55). 

VII. Murders and Acts of Brigandage in the Villages 

If such deeds were committed in the cities, we may be 
sure that the murders and acts of brigandage must have 
been more frightful yet in the villages, where the comit- 
adjis and inferior officers, exempt from direct control, 
could give free vent to their savage instincts. 

Unfortunately, time and circumstances did not permit 
us to extend our inquiry into the numerous villages 
which had to suffer, but what we say is confirmed 
by information which we have received from a rehable 
source. 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 17 

Three divisions, two Turkish and one Bulgarian, 
the 10th, entered into Drama, and stayed in Macedonia 
for three months (25). The Turks, accompanied by 
peasants, their compatriots, entered into the flourishing 
villages of Panghaion and spread ruin there. They 
massacred many of the peasants, as is testified by the 
Mayor of Cavalla, the Mayor of Drama and other 
officials, and by inhabitants of the country, such as Dr. 
Paul INIoulovasilis, physician at Rodolivo of Panghaion, 
who passed the night of the 15-16 of September, near 
the village of Tserepiani, where the massacres that he 
reports took place. 

The villages of Panghaion which had the bitterest 
experiences were the following; villages, furthermore, 
that were totally Greek: Rodolivo, JNIousteni, Pravi, 
Semalto, Lakovikia, Kioupkioi, etc. But the same occur- 
rences were repeated in the villages of other districts. 
Soldiers invaded Efthalia, which is onlj^ a half hour dis- 
tant from Drama; they pillaged the village, after having 
horribly maltreated the inhabitants and killing a number 
of them, for example, the wife of the Deputy Mayor 
Logothetis. Another band of brigands, wearing the Bul- 
garian uniform, entered Kirtsali and seized the Deputy 
Mayor of the village, Tsakiris, and two other persons 
and stripped them of all they had (20). 

VIII. The Conduct of the Germans 

The Greeks, seeing the Bulgarians indulging in every 
kind of outrage and crime against the Greek population, 
and even surpassing their reputation, expected that the 
Germans would intervene in their favor. 

There were, in Eastern Macedonia, very few German 
officers, some of them aviators and others assigned to 
special departments. There were some that were 
charged with the duty of overseeing the Bulgarians and 
hindering the excesses and cruelties which were to be 



18 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

expected from them. All conspires to prove that the 
Germans showed, in this regard, a total and intentional 
indifference. Their premeditated actions left the Bul- 
garians under arms complete liberty of action against the 
Greek population. 

The authorities of Seres and Drama, on several 
occasions, addressed complaints to the German Captain, 
von Putkammer, who was in the general staff in Drama; 
the latter appeared at times to give heed to the entreaties 
of the unfortunates, but without doing anything more; 
at other times he excused himself, pretending that he had 
no influence with the Bulgarians (52). One day he 
even pretended, hypocritically, to manifest a certain 
scientific interest in a conversation with Dr. Papaloudis, 
physician at Drama; the latter complained that the Bul- 
garians had forbidden the doctors ever to attribute a 
death to inanition. Putkammer advised them to write 
down the truth; some days afterwards N. Dasoukas, a 
physician at Drama, was imprisoned for a full five days 
for having dared to attribute a death to inanition. 
Furthermore, there were very few cases of German inter- 
vention and these were not to the honor of German 
Kultur. Thus, one of the prominent men of Drama, D. 
Athanasiades (25), made deposition that German mer- 
chants came down to Drama and gathered cotton, copper 
and gold in return for corn (2 okes of corn for an oke 
of copper) ; Prodromos Vasiliou also deposed that he had 
worked five months at the bridge of Tyrnavo-Semel, 
under German engineers, who beat even the sick (15). 

IX. The Victims of Starvation 

One who knows the ferocious character of the Bul- 
garians as manifested in the past might have expected 
from them some manifestation of cruelty at this time too. 
But the old-time cruelties, horrible though they were, 
pale before the savage plans put in execution so heart- 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 19 

lessly and brutally by the Bulgarians, in order to destroy 
the Greek populations of Macedonia by condemning them 
to the tortures of starvation and exhaustion. We stated 
that famine entered Macedonia at the heels of the Bul- 
garian army; organized with a pitiless systematicalness, 
it caused our brothers to die a martyr's death by tens of 
thousands. 

With tears in our eyes we listened to the heart-rending 
details told us by the survivors. 

At Cavalla and Seres, in particular, and also at Drama 
people fought to obtain provisions, and the victims of 
starvation numbered several scores a day; the victims 
fell right in the street. They went so far as to fight 
over the garbage. Those who did not succeed in finding 
bread supported themselves with herbs and roots (16, 
38). The cats and the dogs disappeared and served to 
prolong the life of the starved population for some days 
(20). In fact, we saw neither dog nor cat in the city of 
Cavalla. According to the deposition of the physicians, 
even the dead bodies of animals were devoured (16). 

Philanthropic women rescued from the streets of 
Cavalla four hundred and fifty children, who had neither 
father nor mother nor any other relative, and who were 
dying of starvation, and cared for them in the asylum 
founded for them. The Bulgarians deported 110 of 
the oldest of these children; 54 of the others survived; 
but the rest, 286, in spite of all the care of the Greek 
ladies, died of exhaustion. The dead fell and were 
buried in masses, without the presence of any priest. The 
unfortunates were so numerous and so alone in the world 
that often, at Cavalla, the presence of the corpses was 
discovered only by the odor that came forth from the 
houses. Often, so the physicians of Cavalla report, they 
buried the dead secretly right in the houses, in order to 
utilize the bread cards to obtain that bread which was dis- 
tributed parsimoniously and at rare intervals. Sad was 
the state of those who had neither silver nor jewels, nor 



20 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

valuables, nor houses to exchange for wheat or barley! 
The reaper, Death, gathered a large harvest from among 
the poorer classes, almost the only exceptions bemg some 
women or children who, being employed at hard military 
labor, thus obtained a modicmii of bread. In one day 
alone Dr. Dasoukas listed at Drama seventy-five deaths 
due to inanition. Out of 55,000 inhabitants, who formed 
the usual population of Cavalla, ten or twelve thousand 
peri:hed of starvation and exhaustion, according to the 
report of Dr. Steph. Tsimourtos. When we visited the 
city, on the 15/28 of October, 1918, it counted only 
3,500 inhabitants, as it proven by the number of bread 
cards in use. 

Seres contained, before the arrival of the Bulgarians, 
22,000-24,000 inhabitants, according to the deposition of 
the mayor, Akil Bey, and the municipal phj^sician, Dr. 
John Doumba; of these 4,000 died, according to the 
register preserved in the city hall, the large majority of 
inanition. Of all this population, formerly prosperous, 
there was left, at the entry of the Greek troops only 
3,500 people, of whom 2,000 had come in from the 
surrounding villages. Even among these 2,000 there were 
scarcely 60 males, most of whom were old men. 

Professor Pernot consulted the register of deaths at 
Cavalla and was good enough to give us a note which 
contains the following facts:* 

Mr. Pernot picked out at random the deaths which 
occurred from the 29th of July to the 30th of August, 
1914. These numbered a hundred; he found the word 
atrophy used only seven times, and always applied to 
infants of from ten days to two years old. In the period 
from the 3rd to the 21st of March, 1917, chosen likewise 
at random, 598 deaths occurred, attributed to the follow- 
ing causes: exhaustion, 295; cachexia, 140; atrophia, 41; 

* It will be remembered that, as all the doctors told us, it was forbidden to 
record inanition as the cause of death. Synonyms such as atrophy, exhaustion, 
athrepsia, anemia, marasmus and cachexia were therefore substituted. 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 21 

senile marasmus, 36; anemia, 23; total, 535. The rest 
of the deaths were attributed to phthisis, to diseases of 
the liver, or heart, to pneumonia, to enteritis, bronchitis, 
etc. Thus more than nine-tenths of the deaths were due 
to starvation. In 1914, from July 29,/December 31, 
there were 454 deaths. In 1915, from January 1/Decem- 
ber 31, there were 699 deaths. In 1916, from January 
1/August 11, there were 607 deaths. 

The Bulgarians entered Cavalla on August 17/20, 
1916. In 1917 the mortality in Cavalla, as the registers 
prove, was as follows: Januarj^ 300; February, 412; 
March, 625; April, 452; May, 203; June, 161; July, 97; 
August, 197; September, 287; October, 294; November, 
288; December, 243; total, 3,519, and these are only the 
verified deaths, many others as we have seen, having 
been concealed. We have then 3,519 deaths in 1917, as 
against 454 in 1914, and 699 in 1915, although the popu- 
lation had in those years been much larger. The figures 
are so eloquent that they need no commentary. 

Drama, at the time of the entry of the Bulgarians, had 
18,000 inhabitants. During the Bulgarian occupation, 
1,749 Mussuhnans died of starvation as is proven by the 
official register, kept by the secretary of the Mussulman 
community, Ibrahim Haki. It is to be noted that, 
according to the testimony of the Mussulman officials, 
Mehmet Akil Bey, Mayor of Seres and Melimet Ali Bey, 
Municipal Councilor of Cavalla, the Mussulmans died of 
starvation in far smaller numbers than the Greeks, so 
that the total of deaths in Drama, traceable to starvation, 
must have been at least three times as large as this 
figure. 

The druggist Karamertzanis, who kept a diary during 
this troublous time, records 5,000 people as perishing 
from famine. At this rate the deaths caused by inanition 
in the three cities of Eastern Macedonia were more 
than 20,000. 

In the town of Pravi ( 4,000 inhabitants ) , according to 



22 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

the notes of Mr. Eust. Vlysmas, superintendent of the 
post-office, there had died, up to June 22, 1917, 997 
persons. 

If we reckon at a smaller rate the deaths from starva- 
tion in the towns and at a still smaller rate the deaths 
in the villages, we shall, in estimating the number of 
those who died from famine in Eastern Macedonia, 
arrive at a number far surpassing 30,000 and falling little 
short of 40,000. 

X, Emigration into Bulgaria Necessitated hy Famine 

The abominable method of murder by starvation had 
a double object: that of destroying the population and 
that of compelMng the agricultural element to emigrate 
to Bulgaria, departures for which country were in every 
way facilitated. 

A resolution passed by the Municipal Council of Seres 
affords us a faithful picture of the situation ; the Council 
met under the presidency of the Prefect, Mr. Andreades, 
on the 24th of April, 1917. The resolution was a reply 
to an order from the fortress of Seres, commanding 
the municipality to send to Bulgaria one hundred and 
fifty families, consisting entirely of farmers. 

" The one and only reason for this emigration," so the 
document states, " is, unfortunately, the famine which is 
decimating, in a frightful way, all classes of the popula- 
tion of the city. In spite of all the requests made by the 
municipality and by the Prefect of Seres, to the com- 
petent authorities, there is, up to the present at least, 
no hope of seeing the condition of the population bet- 
tered by the arrival of food in any suflScient quantities. 
Under these conditions the destruction of a neutral, 
innocent and peaceful population, a unique phenomenon 
in the history of the world, is slowly but surely being 
"brought about by means of a most terrible dearth of 
food." This historical document concludes: " Confronted 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 23 

with this frightful dilemma and not being able, because 
of the lack of supplies, to do anything to meet the evil, 
the Municipal Council, feeling that a moral as well as a 
national wrong has been committed, has resolved, though 
with inexpressible sorrow, to let the emigration move- 
ment have its way." The JNIunicipal Council, at the 
same time, expressed the hope, a feeble hope to be sure, 
that the citizens torn away from their native land under 
such tragic circmnstances would be able some time to 
return to the bosom of their mother-country. 

This feeble hope, JNIr. Andreades, the mover of this 
resolution, who has deserved well of our nation, has had 
the good fortune to see realized. The strength of char- 
acter of Mr. Andreades, his philanthropic and patriotic 
activity, during his sojourn at Seres and his exile in Bul- 
garia, have been, we are everywhere assured, a magnifi- 
cent example. We have ourselves seen the first families 
return, as for example at Drama, the family of Spiros 
Demetriou of Cavalla. Having lost three of his children, 
who died of starvation, one 15 years old, another 4, and 
the third an infant of three months, he took refuge in 
Bulgaria in order to save those who were left (35). 

XI. Suiferings of Those Deported into Bulgaria 

The persecution was more cruel after Greece had 
entered into the war. Public employees, priests, teachers, 
etc., were immediately deported and later this was done 
with all persons between the ages of 15 and 60 years. 
In fact, even people of 75 and 80 years old were thus 
deported. After a toilsome march, made worse by priva- 
tion, they arrived at Choumla and other places. From 
there they were dispatched elsewhere. At least 95 per 
cent among them were subjected to very hard labor, 
especially to the building of strategic railroads. 

This war has afforded spectacles of incredible cruelty, 
but nothing can be compared to the brutality with which 
the Bulgarians treated these deported people. 



24 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

Kitsovo, Karnabat and Kostivar were the burial-places 
of four-fifths if not more of the Greeks who were de- 
ported thither by thousands. They received just enough 
nourishment to keep them from dying before the end 
of their labors. 

During the first month the hostages that were 
deported en masse lived in the open air. Then they gave 
them huts which permitted the rain to enter everywhere, 
or stables without doors or windows (6, 10, 12, 40, 47). 
Fifty-five or sixty priests found shelter in a single cabin 
(10). They were waked at 4 o'clock in the morning and 
at 5 began their hard labor. The sick who were recal- 
citrant were beaten. These beatings served as a diversion 
for the butchers. At times they lined the Greeks up and 
beat them, one after the other, with big clubs or with 
iron ram-rods. Many died under this treatment. (The 
names of several of these are given in numbers, 5, 6, 
12, 28, 31, 33, 34, 39). 

Work ceased at sunset, making thus, in the summer 
season, sixteen or seventeen hours of work a day (5), 
but the troublesome vexations did not cease even then. 
If they left their cabins or the enclosure for any reason 
whatsoever, they were shot, on the pretext of having 
made an attempt to escape. Those, too, who, in an 
attempt to shelter themselves from the rain, took refuge 
under a tree and especially those who, it was known, had 
money on their persons were often fired upon. The work- 
men received 400-800 grams of bread a day and nothing 
else, except, perhaps, at times some cabbage at the ratio 
of a cabbage for a hundred men. Their work was done 
in the midst of torrents of abuse and threats. The 
guards, in order to add moral torture to the physical 
sufferings of their victims, constantly reminded them that 
an early death awaited them. "Everybody to work!" 
they shouted to the sick, " only the dead have the right 
to rest." " Do not trouble yourself about these people," 
said the Chief Engineer Georgieff, to Sarayef, the 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 25 

Commandant, " they are doomed to death." " We will 
not butcher you," said another, a Turkish officer, " but we 
will take all you have and then let you die of starvation." 
The instructions issued were terribly severe: in the carry- 
ing of sand in bags, the rule was laid down, that for 
every bag lost, four Greeks should be shot (5). The 
wretch Kolef, a prefect chosen by the Minister Malinof, 
issued an order one day forbidding the laborers to go 
more than fifteen paces away from the village, under 
penalty of death, and added a postscript that the Greeks 
should not be informed of his order and so take pre- 
cautions. When, on one occasion, the mayor of Furbeler 
sent Mr. Yannouras, Chief Accountant of the Bank 
of Athens at Seres, who was ill, to this same prefect, the 
prefect beat the soldier, who came as guard, for not 
having killed him en route; as for Mr. Yannouras, who 
had a very high fever, he had him put in prison and 
whipped across the face with twenty-five blows (47). 
For the deported priests they reserved all the humiliat- 
ing tasks, such as cleaning out stables and privies. 

Even the very old men were compelled to work as, 
for instance, the confessor Polycarpos, who was eighty 
years old. Nothing illustrates better the monstrous bar- 
barity of the Bulgars than the following episode. Near 
Kitsevo, a temporary Greek hospital, covered with thatch, 
took fire; the patients who numbered fourteen or fifteen, 
not being able to get up were burned to death, while the 
Bulgarians, who were not far away, hindered the Greeks 
from going to the rescue and laughed at the spectacle. 

This existence of privation and maltreatment amply 
explains the ravages that death made among the wretched 
workers, among whose ranks were scholars, merchants 
and artisans, as is shown by the photographs. We are 
not surprised that these ravages were worse than those of 
the most serious epidemics. The figures prove only too 
well how efficacious was the process of annihilation that 
they had hit upon. Out of 450 persons at Chatalja in 



26 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

Eastern Macedonia, forming the group to which Mr. P. 
Sinokas belonged, only 48 survived. Of 4,860 who were 
working at Karnabat, according to the engineer Mr. 
Stylianos, the survivors numbered 840 in all. Only 24 
were left out of 400 in the group of which JNIr. Ath. 
Iltsos was one. Out of 6,000 hostages deported to 
Kostivar, the 3,000 who were kept there up to the end 
nearly all died, and of the three thousand transported 
elsewhere only 840 were left according to the testimony 
of the prefect, Mr. Bakopoulos. Of 18,000 persons 
deported (testimony of Mr. Othonaios, employee) 1,200 
remained living, there being left in his own group 300 
out of 1,400. 

XII. The Return 

The martyrdom of the survivors did not cease with the 
signing of the armistice and the permission to return to 
their homes. It was necessary to march ceaselessly for 
several days and nights with ten minutes of rest every 
two hours and three hours of sleep. Of bread there was 
none after the second day. In its place prunes, wild 
pears and herbs were eaten. It rained and the exiles 
lacked clothes and hats. Death reaped a new harvest 
from among the hostages whose physical strength had 
become exhausted (6, 28, 34, 49). 

Even in these last hours the Bulgarian population did 
not hesitate to take from these poor unfortunates their 
last few pennies. Others were compelled to buy food 
at fabulous prices and to paj^ their railroad fare. We 
have actually seen the tickets, deposited at Seres. The 
most frightful scene of this final dram.a was the robbery 
and murder of the stragglers. Unable to keep up the 
pace, and left behind in isolation, many of them fell 
a prey to the soldiers who massacred them in masses just 
to rob them. One of the hostages, Mr. P. Tsintotas, 
reports that he counted on the road thirty-five corpses 



GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 27 

of people slain with the bayonet. Among them was the 
engineer, Mr. P. Simeonidis; he had paid the subaltern 
who commanded the colmnn for granting him permission 
to stay behind, his strength being utterly exhausted. A 
soldier killed him in order to get his clothes and his 
watch. A large nmiiber of Greeks, who have returned, 
witnessed murders of this sort ( 34, 39 ) . The death of 
Simeonidis was confirmed by several persons, among 

them being the English officer X (54), who also 

heard it said that several other Greeks were murdered 
on their way home. 



Mr. President: 

When our university, at the first rumors of Bul- 
garian atrocities, raised cries of horror and protested to 
the universities of Western Europe and America, we 
could not conceive that the calamity which had burst upon 
Eastern JMacedonia was as vast and irreparable as the 
frightful details which are arriving every day would 
indicate. Nothing can ever give back to us our brothers, 
who, to the number of at least 70,000, have succumbed 
to the savagery and ferocity of a barbarous people. 

Nothing can console the old men and orphans whose 
children and parents have been assassinated by the Bul- 
garians, with the object of uprooting the Hellenic soul 
from a territory which, during centuries of martyrdom 
and persecution, it has always through its intellectual 
superiority maintained as a Greek land, even when Greece 
itself was in slavery. 

But justice is awake. The Greek army and our 
powerful allies have saved Greek soil once more from its 
savage invader. The great international tribunal which 
is to establish a real and definite liberty and assure peace 
and independence to the small states, will punish, we 
are absolutely certain, these barbarous assassins, whose 



28 GREEK UNIVERSITY REPORT 

audacity and insatiate greed have made them so danger- 
ous to their neighbors and the peace of the world. 

It is from now on impossible for Greeks to live under 
the Bulgarian yoke, for it is the chief aim of the Bul- 
garians to annihilate Greeks, Serbs, and in fact all their 
neighbors. 

Our voice is, to be sure, feeble; but strengthened by 
that of our colleagues, professors in the faculties of 
liberty-loving lands, who, under the inspiration of the 
same noble ideals, will rise as defenders of the cause of 
persecuted Hellenism, it will, we hope, have sufficient 
power and weight to make itself heard by the tribunal 
of the great nations. 

Athens, October 30/November 12, 1918. 
The Commission: 

G. SOTERIADES C. ZeNGELIS 

Th. Petimezas D. Hondros 




im^^i- 



OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY 

The American-Hellenic Society is organized for the 
general purpose of extending and encouraging among 
the citizens of the United States of America an inter- 
est in the cultural and political relations between the 
United States and Greece; and in particular to promote 
educational relationships, including the establishment of 
exchange professorships in the Universities of the 
United States and Greece, as a means to diffuse knowl- 
edge of the literature and political institutions of the 
United States throughout Greece, and to encourage in 
America the study of the ancient and modern Hellenic 
language and literature; and further to defend the just 
claims of Greece in particular and of Hellenism in 
general. 



